How Much Medical Knowledge Do You Understand?

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On another thread, an acronym for a medical condition was used by a member. Another member mentioned that she had no idea what the acronym meant.

It is my contention that everyone need to learn as much as he can about medicine, including medical conditions, medications, procedures, and prescriptions. Someday that knowledge may save your life, or the life of someone that you love.

Can you read and understand a prescription? I have read numerous articles which illustrate that many problems, and even deaths, were caused by illegible prescriptions, often for drugs which had similar names to other drugs. These prescriptions were filled improperly, and patients unwittingly took them, with disasterous results.

If you are contemplating an operation, do you understand the risks, and the probability of success of the procedure? Knowing those things may enable you to decide whether or not to undergo one procedure or another.

Do you know what medications are for what condition? Do you understand the side effects of each medication, and the possible interactions with something else that you are taking? If your doctor orders a lab test, do you understand what the test is about?

If you have a medical condition, and a doctor offers a treatment, are you aware that there may be other options? Each doctor has his own favorite way of approching a medical condition, which may or may not be suitable for you.

With the internet, and all the information available, no one has to be in the dark about his health. The problem is that there are credible sites, and those that are not so credible. You need to learn to spot the differences. Here are some good ones:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/

http://www.nih.gov/

http://www.webmd.com/

http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/Interaction/ChooseDrugs

http://www.labtestsonline.org/

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5033

There are lots of others, but these are the some of the best. Be careful about site that tout a particular product as a panacea. There is a lot of snake oil on the net.

How much do you know about medicine? Do you research a problem, condition or medication? Are you in step with the latest treatments for your medical problems?

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Phoenix

I confess I don't know too much about many available medicines, but then I really haven't had to use too many medications. When I do have a new medication prescribed I generally read about it on the internet ,even if I've talked about it with my doctor. I'd pobably do the same if I was to under-go some medical procedure or had developed some condition that I knew little about.

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msolga- The older that I get, the more that I realize that it is absolutely necesssary to be one step ahead of your doctor. Maybe I am looking at the situation from hindsight, but doctors, although they have the technology that earlier medicos did not have, do not have the time nor the inclination to really know the patient well, as when I was a child.

I came from the era when doctors made house calls. He then could observe the family dynamics, and the environment in which the person lived. He also tended to see a family for years, and had a sense of their history.

A chart can't substitute for that kind of "hands on" knowledge. People need to be able to work with their doctors on developing workable medical plans.

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My sister is a surgeon, so that makes me qualified to diagnose people. I understand medicine like Hugh Hefner understands women.

I'm sorry to tell you all this, but you have the AIDS.

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Your sister is a fish? Is she ready to spawn?

Phoenix in all seriousness here is a fabulous website I find most useful
Quackwatch

Quote:

Quackwatch, Inc., which was a member of Consumer Federation of America from 1973 through 2003, is a nonprofit corporation whose purpose is to combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct. Its primary focus is on quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere. Founded by Dr. Stephen Barrett in 1969 as the Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud, it was incorporated in 1970. In 1997, it assumed its current name and began developing a worldwide network of volunteers and expert advisors. Our activities include:

Investigating questionable claims
Answering inquiries about products and services
Advising quackery victims
Distributing reliable publications
Debunking pseudoscientific claims
Reporting illegal marketing
Assisting or generating consumer-protection lawsuits
Improving the quality of health information on the Internet
Attacking misleading advertising on the Internet

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These are very helpful sites, Phoenix, thanks for posting them. I very often check the Internet but was not sure which ones are reliable. I knew the mayo and webmd and recently discovered the nih by chance.

I also have a book called The Merck Manual which is excellent, home edition, paperback. It costs only US $8 and Cdn $12. It is so good I own the first and second editions of it.

I found out this one recently, I hope it will be useful:

http://www.mlanet.org/resources/medspeak/topten.html

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cello- Good site!

When looking at sites, look for ones connected to recognized organizations, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, etc. Also, a good bet is a site that is connected to a teaching institution.................Mayo is one of the premier sites.

Sometimes a site that is basically a blog of anecdotal material can be helpful, but always check back to the traditional sites. There are some sites that are hosted by well meaning, but not very well informed people.

If you want to check on a doc's credentials, see:

http://webapps.ama-assn.org/doctorfinder/home.html

My state has a site which lists rather detailed credentials of doctors. Look around and see if yours does too.

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Slappy Doo Hoo wrote:

My sister is a surgeon, so that makes me qualified to diagnose people. I understand medicine like Hugh Hefner understands women.

I'm sorry to tell you all this, but you have the AIDS.

I am almost 58. If I contract the HIV virus today I will be in my mid to late 60's before I even begin to display a symptom. By then there will be a lot more advances in it's treatment so probably I can go to my late 70's at least before I start to get seriously ill maybe even into my 80's and by then who gives a ****?

What would I rather have on my tombstone? Here lies the Bear after a long and valiant struglle with say, colon cancer?

I prefer Here lies the Bear got so much pussy it killed him.

So I'm not afraid of your diagnosis Slap.

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Bear wrote:

I prefer Here lies the Bear got so much pussy it killed him.

Your remark reminds me about something that happened years ago, I was about 19, and I worked with an unmarried woman in her forties. In those years, before the sexual revolution, a woman usually did not publicize her conquests.

Anyhow, every Monday, she would regale us with wild tales of her latest sexual encounter. One of the women in the office confronted her, and asked her why she screwed around so much. Her answer was classic. She said,

"When I die, I don't want them to write "Returned Unopened" on my tombstone"!

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Well that is certaintly funnier than responding with "I have daddy issues."

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Quote:

It is my contention that everyone need to learn as much as he can about medicine, including medical conditions, medications, procedures, and prescriptions. Someday that knowledge may save your life, or the life of someone that you love.

Can you read and understand a prescription? I have read numerous articles which illustrate that many problems, and even deaths, were caused by illegible prescriptions, often for drugs which had similar names to other drugs. These prescriptions were filled improperly, and patients unwittingly took them, with disasterous results.

If you are contemplating an operation, do you understand the risks, and the probability of success of the procedure? Knowing those things may enable you to decide whether or not to undergo one procedure or another............

Do you think
I should drive a car without a specific knowledge how the car works?
Should I tell, a bricklayer how to build my house?
Should I tell, how to built computer so I can post it here?

I understand your pain and this world overwhelms me too but with the amount of date available to humans we have to specialize.

If I had a choice when putting my life in somebody's hands I would opt for somebody who's knowledge is a bit more then medical Internet popular sites. How ? I am not sure. Choosing a doctor is like a lottery but let's go for probability of the best treatment.

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I don't want to derail the thread, but, Quackwatch has as much bogus information as good. I will not debate the notion here on this thread, just want readers to be aware of dissenting opinions.

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Well, I was lucky. My first bunch of doctors were both smart and sane and they gave me refs over the years. The way I got that first one, I picked the chief resident in the field at the local university.

What that has to do with someone dealing with a far flung hmo, I've only a frown.

Now I'm catapulting into medicare one of these days, and I see only a sea of despond.

Medicine sucks.

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Oh, on understanding med issues, I'm probably swimming above average, though not claiming conversance with every recent thing.

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Quote:

Medicine sucks.

It might be, do u have an alternative?

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tessxyz wrote:

Do you think
I should drive a car without a specific knowledge how the car works?
Should I tell, a bricklayer how to build my house?
Should I tell, how to built computer so I can post it here?

Tessxyz -- Since you're a newbie I'll try to be gentle with you... hello and all that, welcome to a2k, etc. ... but I disagree with you completely.

If you drive a car, you'd better know how it works. If you've gotten a new car, the first thing it says in the manual is read the entire manual and understand how to best maintain your car. If you have someone build your house, you'd better know if it's being built right, because in the end, who else is going to watch out for your interests? There are plenty of folks crying right now because they were cheated by fly-by-night contractors and there isn't much recourse in the courts even IF you can find someone to sue.

And finally, yes, you need to know quite a bit about a computer and the internet in order to post here. You need to know how to get online, how to make and keep a password, how to write & manage the simple codes we use here. You need to know the tolerances of online discourse and must be able to run your computer well enough that it doesn't get bogged down with viruses.

Sad to say, there are a lot of medical problems brought on by willful ignorance. In addition and for you, maybe more importantly since you want to put yourself in a "specialist's hands" -- you'll find most doctors expect you to weigh the choices of treatment as they lay them out. They'll want you to make the final decision because it keeps their liability insurance lower. When you purchase prescriptions you should be told to check your Rx and make sure that it appears to be correct.

Last summer I hosted a book signing for a physician who had written a book called Common Medical Sense. It was all about what your doctor EXPECTS you to know. In the case of your health and that of those who may depend on you, curiosity is very good and ignorance is not bliss. Become a specialist in yourself... nobody else will ever take better care of you.

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Quote:

Choosing a doctor is like a lottery but let's go for probability of the best treatment.

Let's go for the treatment/physician least likely to kill us!

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Quote:

When you purchase prescriptions you should be told to check your Rx and make sure that it appears to be correct.

This sounds like good advice, except for the fact that very few non-pharmacists can read a hand-written Rx.

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It's a good idea for most of us seniors who take many drugs every day to learn about them, because we tend to forget after we've taken them for several years what we should and shouldn't eat/drink or mix other drugs with them.

Many of us seniors take statin drugs. We should stay away from grapfruit juice and fruit, because it can become life-threatening and or we can become very sick.

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How Much Medical Knowledge Do You Understand?

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